1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the provision of information about an advertisement to a mobile terminal in the form of data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Advertising is to provide characteristic information about a specific commodity or service (hereinafter referred to as the “commodity”) to potential consumers and customers in order to promote the sales and distribution of the commodity, and corresponds to one-way communication.
Advertising media includes a variety of media such as wallpaper, a poster, a signboard, street facilities, a leaflet, radio, a movie, TV, a web banner, a popup advertisement, a magazine, a newspaper, a sticker, and a shopping cart.
However, such advertising media utilize still images, and therefore the amounts of information to be provided are limited. Although moving image information is utilized recently, it is difficult to repeatedly view and analyze the moving image information which is played.
Meanwhile, mobile terminals are communication devices which have the advantage of being able to wirelessly connect to a mobile communication system, and wirelessly connect to and communicate with desired counterparties anytime and anywhere while moving. Such mobile terminals are always carried because of the characteristic of communication that communication may be made anytime and anywhere, but have low utilization rate because the period for which they are actually utilized for communication is short.
Therefore, in order to increase the utilization rate of mobile terminals, additional functionalities, such as E-book, MP3, camera, recorder, scanner, multimedia player, and game machine functionalities, have been added to the mobile terminals. Recently, mobile phones to which tablet computer functionality has been added have been introduced under the name of smartphones. The development of mobile phones to which functionality is added tends to continue.
Furthermore, short-distance wireless communication functionality, such as Bluetooth, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and/or Near Field Communication (NFC), is added to mobile terminals, and therefore the mobile phones can perform tag functionality for managing the history information of commodities, smartcard functionality for performing electronic payment, and/or Peer-to-Peer (P2P) functionality for performing one-to-one communication.
Conventional advertising media have the disadvantages of instantaneously providing information, and being unable to review the content of an advertisement when a person moves away from a location where the advertisement is made. Conventional moving image-based advertising media also have the disadvantages of being unable to review the content of an advertisement over time, being unable to represent information using a moving image at times, and being unable to review the content of an advertisement when a person moves away from a location where the advertisement is made.
That is, conventional advertising media is disadvantageous in that it is difficult to review the content of an advertisement when a person moves away from a location where the advertisement is made, a still image advertisement can represent a relatively limited amount of information, and a moving image advertisement cannot represent information which needs to be reviewed and analyzed for a long time, such as a railway schedule.
Therefore, there is a need for a technology which receives the content of an advertisement from an advertisement medium, records the advertisement in a mobile terminal, and allows a user to repeatedly review and analyze the content of the advertisement when the user moves away from the advertising medium and needs to repeatedly review and analyze the content of the advertisement for a long time.
Mobile terminals are communication devices which are capable of wirelessly connecting to and communicating with desired counterparties anytime and anywhere while moving within service areas. Such mobile terminals which are always carried to prepare for communication that may be made anytime and anywhere have low utilization rate because the period for which they are actually utilized for communication is short. The utilization rate of mobile terminals tends to be increased by adding additional functionalities, such as E-book, MP3, camera, recorder, scanner, multimedia player, and game machine functionalities, to the mobile terminals Recently, the utilization rate of mobile terminals is further increased by adding NFC functionality for performing tag functionality, smartcard functionality and P2P functionality.
Since current mobile terminals tend to be equipped with NFC functionality, a mobile terminal will be described as being an NFC mobile terminal in the following description.
Furthermore, thanks to the development of communication technology, the development of manufacturing technology and the improvement of mass production technology, the price of NFC mobile terminals and the communication cost have been reduced, and each adult has about one NFC mobile terminal with the advent of the personal communication era.
Meanwhile, a purchaser who purchases a commodity has prior knowledge about the corresponding commodity and purchase the commodity selected at need, while a vendor generally perform the promotion or advertising of his or her commodity so that the commodity can be selected by many purchasers.
Purchasers may hesitate or may not immediately make up his or her mind when there is a plurality of commodities of the same type or a similar type.
A barcode or a Quick Response (QR) code indicative of information, such as the name, manufacturer, price, release date, expiration date, serial number and location of a commodity, is represented on a commodity.
Conventionally, information about a commodity, such as the advertisement, use and functionality of the commodity, is provided using advertising leaflets, specifications and promotion materials in the form of a discontinuous and concentrated event.
Therefore, it is difficult for a user or a purchaser to obtain the advertisement information of a commodity in such an event where the commodity is advertized. Furthermore, even when a person participates in such an event and becomes aware of the advertisement information of a commodity, the person forgets the information over time, and therefore the effect of such advertising is very low.
Furthermore, since specific information about a commodity, such as the advertisement information, expiration date and use of the commodity, is frequently changed and updated, it is difficult to provide accurate information to purchasers.
Therefore, there is a need for the development of a technology which is capable of providing information about each commodity (hereinafter referred to as “commodity information”) including, for example, the advertisement information, promotion information, name, release date, expiration date, manufacturer, serial number and price information of the commodity using a QR code or a barcode (hereinafter referred to as an “optical code”) which is represented on the commodity.
In particular, there is a need for the development of a technology which is capable of providing commodity information, included in an optical code represented on each commodity, to an NFC mobile terminal which is being carried by an individual person using NFC communication, so that a purchaser can rapidly check accurate commodity information.